Humboldt Youth are Taking Climate Action: California Youth Climate Policy Leadership Program

At EPIC, we are dedicated to protecting the land, water, and wildlife of Northern California. As climate change accelerates, safeguarding our future has never been more important. This also means empowering the next generation—our youth. Deeply affected by the climate crisis, young people are among the most powerful advocates for meaningful and lasting solutions.

That is why this year, EPIC has joined the California Youth Climate Policy (CYCP) Leadership program, a statewide initiative that empowers high schoolers to take climate action into their own hands. Now in its third cohort, CYCP students participate in 7 months of virtual seminars, retreats, and workshops with knowledge and skill-building activities related to environmental and climate action. Simultaneously, they will take their knowledge and craft a grassroots campaign to improve sustainability, climate literacy, and policies at their schools or within their districts. 

This year is especially exciting. For the first time, Humboldt and Del Norte are represented by five CYCP students, and I have the privilege of mentoring three of them. Our local school districts have their work cut out for them: these young leaders are ready to make radical changes to climate education. To protect their privacy, I will share their stories using pseudonyms.

Jax is an enthusiastic and thoughtful leader who noticed two big gaps at their school: not a single mention of climate change in their first year of high school, and no acting student government to help raise student voices. They have an idea of working with the 9th-grade biology teacher to implement a new curriculum and use their school newspaper to highlight the importance of climate literacy. 

Meet Lee, a driven student and a member of their district’s School Board. Passionate about the outdoors, Lee hopes to bring more outdoor education into the curriculum, believing that a connection to nature inspires protection. They’re also eager to tackle climate misinformation head-on by highlighting “myths versus facts” in the classroom.

Lastly, there is Cam, who is remarkably mature for their age. They want to explore using funding from a local tax measure for their school district, which expires next June, to invest in renewable energy on their campus. Cam’s goal is to advocate for installing solar panels and battery storage before federal tax incentives for these projects expire at the end of this year. They hope to leverage these expiration dates as an urgency to make quick changes on their school's campus. 

Watching these students step into leadership reminds us that the future is not only in good hands, it is already here. These students are bold, courageous, and ready to make change. Follow their journeys on EPIC’s blog as we continue building intergenerational power for the planet.

If you have any resources you’d like to share with these students about their projects, please reach out to me at cecilia@wildcalifornia.org.